Jordi Esteva

Jordi is a writer and photographer who has always been fascinated by Africa and the Middle East thereby focusing MOST his activity as a journalist and photographer on this part of the world.

He spent five years in Egypt working for Radio Cairo International. His book `’Los Oasis of Egypt`’ (Lunwerg, 1995), shows a collection of Images that result from the time he spent studying everyday life in the desert in Egypt. He was Chief Editor and Art Director of the Ajoblanco magazine from 1987 to 1993. In the summer of 1994, he participated in the UNESCO World Heritage Project for 2001 and was commissioned to photograph the Medina of Marrakech. In 1966, he was commissioned a photographic project to record the architecture of the Moroccan Atlas: Strengths Mud in Southern Morocco (Companía Literaria1996). A Thousand and One Voices (El País / Aguilar Lectores1999 1998 and Circle), is a book of conversations with Arab artists and intellectuals of both sides of the Mediterranean about the challenge that Arab societies are facing to adapt to modern times. Then he published Journey to the Land of Souls, (Pre-Textos, 1999). This book is both a visual and written testimony of the African world of animism: its initiation rituals and spirit possession phenomena.

Arab Sea (Peninsula / Altair) was published in 2006. This book explores the journeys of the old sailors of the Arabian coast WHO sailed along the various ports of the Indian Ocean aided by the monsoon and following a route HAD that remained practically the same since the times of Sinbad the Sailor.

February 2009: After two months in Ivory Coast, the filming of “Return to the Land of Souls” is completed.

2011: Return to the Land of Souls receives several international prices.

September 2011: Publishes the book “Socotra, Land of Geniuses” (Socotra, the Land of Djinns”). This melancholic travel to the Island of Sindbad is extremely beautiful, extraordinary and thrilling “according to Babelia, the literary supplement of El País, the Spanish leading newspaper. The book receives The V Price of Routes of the Cid Travel Literature.

Four years after the filming of “Return to the Land of Souls,” Jordi Esteva went back to the Ivory Coast to film “Komian.” The film recounts the search for a priestess possessed by the spirit of a panther. Filmed in black and white, with the rhythm of a road movie, the narrator travelled to Ghana to look for the only drummers able to accompany the priestess and invoke the powerful spirit.

2014: Jordi Esteva returns to the island of Socotra to film “Socotra, the island of Djinns.” The film has been fully edited and ready for the 2016 circuit of festivals.